Three easy steps you can take today to improve the security of your information

There are two types of users. Those who say they have nothing to hide and hide, and those who use all possible data protection methods to keep your personal information safe.

This article is for the first type of people or for those who fall somewhere in between. People of the second type know these techniques and apply them in practice almost every day.

So what should you do today to ensure information security?

1. Back up important data.
2. Replace simple passwords with stronger ones.
3. Make a copy of the information stored in the cloud.

Why should you back up important data?

Let’s start with a question about whether it is necessary to save a copy of your hard drive on another medium. Software improvement goes hand in hand with malware improvement. Ransomware viruses became especially active. Upon entering your computer, the ransomware virus blocks access to your data and requires payment to decrypt it. But often, even the transfer of the required sum of money does not solve the problem with the encrypted data. In such a case, this data can be considered lost forever.

Unfortunately, these cases are common. You can get malicious code even through simple JavaScript in your browser. Therefore, if you copy important personal data to removable data carriers at least a few times, you will have the opportunity to recover at least part of the lost information and protect it against fraud.

Why should you change your passwords?

A list of the most popular Ashley Madison website passwords was released in the fall of 2015. And at the end of 2015, we had the opportunity to see a list of the worst passwords used in 2015. According to these lists, which agree on most points, people do not like to complicate their lives and choose simple passwords. They keep using such easy combinations as 123456, password, password1, qwerty, etc. When coming up with a new password, try to make it very complicated so that it is not forced.

But still, even this is not enough. Unfortunately, online scammers are constantly improving their skills and soon there won’t be a single password they can’t get. So how do you protect your personal data? In fact, you can’t rely on passwords alone, so the best way to protect your data is to at least use two-factor authentication where possible.

2-factor authentication assumes the use of two different authentication factors when logging into the account. The first factor is something you know (usually a username and password), and the second factor is something you have (usually a one-time password generated with the help of an OTP token or an application on the smartphone, it can also be delivered via SMS or voice call).

So even if a scammer hacks your master password, you won’t be able to go through the next authentication step. And vice versa, even with the one-time password (token) generator or your phone, the scammer won’t be able to log in without knowing a static password. Two-factor authentication is especially important for bank accounts or corporate emails.

But even using 2FA, you should not forget that static passwords play an important role in two-factor authentication, since they are one of two factors – a knowledge factor.

Why should you back up your cloud information?

How many times have we already seen the faces of users who suddenly could not find important documents, which they stored in cloud services. And this can happen to anyone. So the next time you think about leaving your important account information in Gmail, Dropbox, or any other service, think twice and make a copy on your hard drive.